With the adoption of the third National Action Plan (NAP) on UN Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) et al. on 17 April 2018, the Government of Georgia reconfirmed its firm commitment to deliver on the Women, Peace and Security agenda.

Role play on mediation: training participants are applying theory to practice; Photo: UN Women

Women’s increased participation in peacebuilding and conflict resolution processes remains the priority of the NAP. For the time being, women comprise slightly over 30 per cent of the Georgian participants of the peace and security incidents’ prevention formats, namely the Geneva International Discussions (GID) and the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM). To improve this indicator further in 2017, the Levan Mikeladze Diplomatic Training Centre of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in cooperation with Folke Bernadotte Academy, UN Women and the Swedish Embassy initiated a series of capacity development interventions to train trainers on high-level negotiation and mediation skills. The participants have been women public servants who are either already engaged in formal negotiations or will soon take on important roles as negotiators and mediators.

On 4 and 5 May 2018, a second phase of the training of trainers was conducted in Borjomi, Georgia, where 16 participants from the MFA, Ministry of Justice, Office of the State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality and State Security Service deepened their knowledge in negotiation techniques, the key elements of resolution 1325 (2000) and practical and successful examples of its implementation with a focus on dialogue processes. “The second training has complemented the first one by giving us a chance to dedicate more time to practical work, which was very useful,” stated Salome Supatashvili, First Secretary of the MFA’s UN Division.

The third and final round of the training will take place in fall 2018.

Advancing the capacity of women in negotiation and mediation is the MFA’s commitment under Georgia’s 2018-2020 NAP on Women, Peace and Security. With UN Women Georgia’s technical support, the MFA also plans to integrate the principles of UN Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) et al. in the training modules offered to career diplomats at the Ministry’s Diplomatic Training Centre.